The College Football Playoff Selection Committee released its penultimate Top 25 rankings on Tuesday, Dec. 2 on ESPN. The committee ranked the Rebels No. 6, one spot higher than last week’s rankings.
In this bracket, the Ole Miss Rebels will take on either the Virginia Cavaliers, who would be the ACC champions, or a Group of 5 conference champion. Tulane and North Texas will play for the American Athletic Conference title this weekend. Ole Miss defeated Tulane already at home in dominating fashion earlier this year by a score of 45-10.
James Madison will look to get a spot in the playoffs with a win over Troy in the Sun Belt Conference and a Duke victory over Virginia in the ACC championship.
With this ranking, it is likely that Ole Miss will host their first ever playoff game in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
This comes after many experts believed that the Rebels would drop spots due to the departure of head coach Lane Kiffin and many other staff members to LSU.
The Rebels are set to have offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. calling plays for the Rebels, despite having a contract set in place at LSU. The move to have Weis as the offensive coordinator for the playoffs could have prevented the Rebels from falling in the rankings.
As of now, Virginia’s entry into the playoffs is based on their projected likelihood of winning the ACC championship. If the Cavaliers lose that game, they would miss the playoffs entirely.
Ole Miss moved up a spot due to the Texas A&M Aggies losing to the Texas Longhorns. The Aggies dropped to one spot below Ole Miss with no games remaining on either of the teams schedules.
The first round of the playoffs will begin with one game on Friday, Dec. 19. The remaining three games are all on Saturday, Dec. 20, beginning at noon. Teams with better seeding, including Ole Miss as of now, would host first round games on their respective campuses.
However, things are not set in stone for the Rebels. College Football Playoff chairman Hunter Yuracheck said that even teams who do not play in conference championships can move up or down.
The next game for the Rebels will be head coach Pete Golding’s first game at the helm for Ole Miss.
